HIV vaccines are nothing new. There are millions of dollars being put into research on them. Unfortunately the HIV virus isn't something that we can 'eradicate' as easily as something like smallpox or polio because of its mutagenic properties (just do a search on 'reverse transcriptase' if you want to know more about it). Other medications for keeping HIV patients alive longer and with better quality of life is where most progress has been made (drugs that keep virus loads low in the body and try to keep white blood cells up). There are many people living with HIV for 20-30 years and who knows how much longer they can live. I personally know a guy who got HIV from blood tranfusions as a child (he's a hemophiliac) 15 years ago. He's thirty something now, married, has an education and career, AND two healthy children. HIV isn't going anywhere, people are going to be living longer with it which is why education and safe sex is so important to be taught. This is NOT a disease that will simply kill itself off the planet by killing all the infected patients, it's here to stay for a long time.